CPI Data Takes Center Stage 24/10/2025

HOT stories for today

Market wrap:

• Wall Street’s major benchmarks closed higher Thursday, buoyed by renewed appetite for technology shares and upbeat sentiment heading into the thick of third-quarter earnings. The S&P 500 advanced 0.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 144 points, or 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite led gains, rising 0.9% as AI bellwethers, including Nvidia and Oracle, powered higher. In corporate news, AI startup Anthropic and Google unveiled a cloud partnership valued in the tens of billions, underscoring the escalating race for AI infrastructure dominance.
• Across the Pacific, South Korea’s Kospi surged to a record high, fueling a broader rally in Asian equities as investors positioned ahead of next week’s Trump–Xi summit. Treasury Secretary Bessent and other officials are said to be laying the groundwork for the talks, described as “frank and detailed,” with rare earths, Russian oil, and soybean trade on the agenda. Crude futures climbed after the White House imposed sanctions on major Russian oil producers, an effort to pressure Moscow toward a ceasefire in Ukraine.
• Meanwhile, traders are bracing for Friday’s September consumer price index report, which could be a key catalyst for markets starved of fresh federal data amid the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. Wall Street will parse the numbers for signs of whether inflation is cooling or reigniting, and how Reagan-era tariffs, now under review in talks with Canada, may be filtering through to consumers.

Markets Run on Faith With U.S. Data in the Dark

• The government shutdown has left investors navigating without instruments, trading on instinct rather than evidence. With no October jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, markets are leaning on fragmentary private data that point to a cooling labor market. A recent BLS revision already stripped out 911,000 jobs from prior-year figures, recasting what looked like resilience into a slowdown. At the same time, GDP growth was revised higher, underscoring an economy that’s expanding unevenly, consumers are spending, but businesses are hiring with caution.
• The Fed’s September rate cut reflects that delicate balance: easing credit strains without reigniting inflation. Early signs of stronger bank lending hint that monetary policy is gaining traction, yet job creation may stay muted as companies await clarity on budgets and the impact of AI-driven efficiencies. Until Washington restores the flow of data, Wall Street is steering through fog, trading on faith when what it needs most are facts, and confidence itself has become the market’s most fragile currency.

Stocks on the move:
 

• Alphabet (GOOGL): Shares rose 1% after Anthropic and Google announced a cloud partnership worth tens of billions, granting Anthropic access to up to one million of Google’s custom TPUs.
• Ford Motor (F): The stock gained 4% in after-hours trading after third-quarter results beat estimates, though Ford cut its full-year guidance due to a supplier fire. Adjusted EPS came in at 45 cents on $47.19 billion in revenue.
• Target (TGT): Shares edged up less than 1% after the retailer said it will cut 8% of its corporate workforce, or about 1,800 jobs, its first major layoff in a decade.
• Intel (INTC): Shares jumped 7% as third-quarter sales beat forecasts, signaling revived demand for its x86 PC chips. Intel reported adjusted EPS of 23 cents on $13.65 billion in revenue.
• Applied Materials (AMAT): Shares slipped by more than 1% after the company announced a $160–$180 million charge tied to a 4% workforce reduction as it adapts to automation and geographic shifts.

Watchlist: INTC, TGT, GOOGL, AMAT, F, DECK, NEM, PG, HCA

Key Economic Events Today:

EST time

08:30 am: USD CPI, Core CPI
09:45 am: USD Flash Manufacturing, Services PMI
10:00 am: USD Inflation Expectations, Consumer Sentiment


Earnings

BMO (Before Market Open): Procter and Gamble (PG), Sanofi (SNY), HCA Healthcare (HCA), General Dynamics (GD)
AMC (After Market Close): Enjoy your weekend!


The TEFS Analyst team wishes you a successful day!